Written on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 10:11am by Alan Bedenko | 2 Comments

15 Miles on the Erie Canal

Via NYCO, this New York Times article indicates that the Erie Canal – that meandering waterway we all sort of think of as a quaint anachronism – has seen commercial shipping traffic increase by 280% over the past year – from 15 in 2007 to 42 (so far) in 2008.

The reason?

The canal still remains the most fuel-efficient way to ship goods between the East Coast and the upper Midwest. One gallon of diesel pulls one ton of cargo 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by train and 514 miles by canal barge, Ms. Mantello said. A single barge can carry 3,000 tons, enough to replace 100 trucks.

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2 Comments

  1. Chris from OP says:
    November 6, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    I’ve also heard, but have no source to verify, that some smaller ships are going up the Hudson to Albany and unloading goods from the Atlantic that would have gone to NY/NJ if not for backlogs and congestion there.

  2. Timothy Domst says:
    November 7, 2008 at 12:49 am

    Maybe someone can start hauling that umbrella-width NYC pizza that’s so superior to ours in bargeloads up the canal and knock La Nova, Just Pizza etc. out of business so you can dance a jig.